Can you believe it? Elon Musk — a man known for posting AI slop glorifying himself, who believes his “maximum truth-seeking AI” Grok will unlock the secrets of the universe, and believes multiple conspiracy theories divorced from reality — has apparently been struggling with AI psychosis.
The centibillionaire admitted as much, seemingly as a badge of honor, in a rant during the X Takeover event on Saturday that was spotted by Business Insider.
“I’ve got a little bit of cyber psychosis,” Musk said. “Maybe a lot actually.”
“At various points this year,” he continued, “I’ve had AI or SI psychosis probably like half a dozen times.” (The “SI” there was referring to “superintelligence,” the term that president Donald Trump just passed an executive order to rename artificial intelligence; taking this edict seriously as the tech remains so obviously flawed may itself be a sign of some sort of disordered thinking.)
AI psychosis is the term that some experts are using to describe how AI chatbots can drive and exacerbate a user’s delusions, sometimes causing them to break with reality. In extreme cases, these can cause extreme mental health spirals that upend someone’s personal and professional life, sometimes ending in self harm or suicide.
More generally, AI psychosis is also used to mock tech figures — CEOs especially — who are a little too obsessed with AI and fully buy into every ludicrous claim about its capabilities, such as those peddled by Musk. Sometimes, techies will embrace the accusations in ironic fashion, sending a proud middle finger to the luddites who’ve declined partaking in the industry hysteria.
Or maybe not so ironic. Musk’s baby mama Claire “Grimes” Boucher not too long ago bragged about the upsides of having your mind melted by an AI model, in a rant that unfortunately appeared to be completely sincere.
“The thing about AI psychosis is that it’s more fun than not having AI psychosis,” she wrote in a tweet in December, before adding: “I’ve had it (might still have it).”
It certainly wouldn’t be unprecedented for a tech figure to weather allegations of actual AI psychosis — the non-“fun” kind — either, such as the infamous case of OpenAI investor Geoff Lewis.
Musk, it goes without saying, has been chugging the AI Kool-Aid. Moments before the admission, he talked about how stunned he’s been by AI music.
“Calling it slop-core is a misnomer, frankly it’s awesome-core,” he said. “AI music is really good.”
“It just shows taste,” he further asserted. “And youre like, ‘wow, AI can do good taste? That’s pretty wild.'”
With takes like those, we’d almost be more worried if he didn’t have AI psychosis.
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